


Legerdemain

by sarveniraven



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: also jareth has a sister, but for now it's the low-key night circus au from hell, if i finish this it will eventually be jareth/sarah
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 15:46:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11211192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarveniraven/pseuds/sarveniraven
Summary: Legerdemain (N):1. sleight of hand2. a display of skill or adroitnessThe circus comes with no preamble, a sudden and stark monochromatic enigma with magic unlike that of any Fae creature Jareth had known.





	Legerdemain

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, friends, here's the really short start of a Night Circus AU fic I should write eventually but haven't finished. *shrug emoji*
> 
> Feedback much appreciated! c:

_The circus arrives without warning...  
It is simply there, when yesterday it was not._

There was an empty field to the west of the castle, bleeding its borders right up to the edge of the goblin city. Its only occupants were yellow-brown stalks of grass always waving in some unseen breeze--and an abundance of burrowing gnomes. The gnomes were nasty little creatures, taking it upon themselves to bite the ankles of any who dared enter their domain; it was, therefore, quickly apparent that the city could not expand into the grassy stretch, and the cluster of buildings had contented itself with the southern and eastern regions around the castle. Sometimes goblin children strayed into the field and returned bruised and bloody but still grinning wide, and nobody questioned it. The Labyrinth had its mysteries and its wild places, and none but Jareth knew all of its corners and its secrets and the importance of its strange creatures. Mostly people just avoided the field, and that was that.

But that morning, shadowed yet from the yawning golden rays of sunrise by the castle’s high towers, the field was occupied with a sprawling, monochrome circus. Its borders were marked out clearly with a spindly black iron fence, and the grasses grew right up to the edge but stopped short of growing inside. From a high castle balcony, the tents within the fence’s circumference looked like small, black-and-white striped circles, obsidian pennants on top blowing in the field’s perpetual inexplicable breeze. A gate with an attached ticket booth stood at the entrance, directly facing the balcony, and a small sign hung upon the booth proclaimed “The gates will open at sundown, and no sooner. Dreamers welcome.”

Normally, Jareth would be furious. A display of magic on such a grand scale in his domain without his express permission would be seen, in most circumstances, as a blatant disregard for his authority as king. But this, to his own surprise, came as a mere curiosity. A puzzle to solve. And the magic felt distinctly not-Fae, not of the Underground at all--and Jareth simply wondered if there was--

“--an explanation,” someone was saying behind him, and the king blinked rapidly, and the tower in which he stood came back into sharp focus. He turned on the visitor with a scowl, only to find Ari. His scowl did not disappear, but it melted, a little, into one of affection.

With a toss of her hair, a white-blond cascade of gleaming silk, she rolled dark eyes skyward. “Honestly, Jareth, how did you not sense me here? You’re a _Fae_ , for gods’ sakes.”

He gestured vaguely to the west, toward the circus and its squat, colorless tents. “I was focusing. And really, Ari, nobody comes into this tower aside from you or I.”

“As I was saying,” she said pointedly, her crimson lips twisted in a frown, “the goblins would have an explanation for this magic.”

“I have none,” he told her, his fingers fidgeting with the lace cuffs of his flowing shirt as he turned back to his study of the odd apparition. “This is no trick of mine.”

“Be that as it may--”

He cut her off with a wave of his hand, not even glancing in her direction. “Ari, Ari, we must simply wait until sundown, mustn’t we? I cannot console my masses when I haven’t even the faintest idea of what this means, or whose puzzle it is.”

For a long moment, the room was silent, held transfixed in a moment of time. When Ari finally heaved out a sigh, the bubble was broken, and he flashed a brief, absentminded smile in her direction. She only conjured a cup of tea, placed it in front of him, and patted his arm. Then she left, but not before tossing over her shoulder, “I hope you know what you’re doing, Goblin King.”

“And you, sister,” he murmured back, taking the tea between cold hands and sipping at its contents, his eyes sharp on the enigma below.


End file.
